Grapevine walks back decision to deny plan for apartments near Grapevine Mills

Grapevine’s city council voted on Tuesday to reintroduce the request and unanimously voted to pass the zoning change and conditional use permit for a mixed-use development near Grapevine Mills.

The property, located at 2800 and 3421 Grapevine Mills Parkway, was zoned for hotel, corporate office and community commercial use.

At the May 19 meeting, the planning and zoning committee and the city council voted against the change.

On Tuesday night, the council said the airport noise zone and deed restrictions made it impossible to build single family homes and limited other developments.

Mayor William D. Tate also noted potential legal implications of denying a zoning change after the developers made revisions to the plan to accommodate the requests of the city.

The council had previously denied a similar zoning change and conditional use permit that included townhouses in July 2024.

“We’ve listened to this applicant, and it’s a good applicant,” Tate said. “They’re entitled to a reasonable use to the highest and best use of the property, and what’s out there is hotels, and apartments, and they dealt with the staff for several months now and trying to work out a solution where they can get the highest and best use and develop the property which they are entitled to do.”

Council member Duff O’Dell said that the sales-tax revenue that the property would develop will help the city.

The land is around 28 acres and would be subdivided into four separate lots for the rentals with 248 multi-family units across 11 buildings. There would also be another three portions for hotel(s).

One of the hotels would be a 75-foot tall, six-story Sandman Signature Hotel on 5.9 acres with 220 rooms, according to city documents. The 135,735-square-foot hotel would have a full-service Chop Steakhouse and Bar Restaurant, meeting space, a fitness center and an outdoor pool.

Three Grapevine residents spoke during the public-comments period at the council meeting on Tuesday and said they opposed having more apartments in Grapevine. They said the changes would produce an increase in traffic and lamented a loss of a small-town feel that they moved to the city for.

Commercial real estate developer Trammell Crow Company proposed the zoning change from hotel corporate office district to community commercial district for 20 acres on the eastern part of the property, as it plans to build three- to four-story apartment buildings that would have 248 units.

Joel Behrens, managing director of Trammell Crow’s Dallas-Fort Worth office, said at a meeting that the site right doesn’t generate any revenue for the city.

“Where we were last time [July 2024 proposal] with the potential to create about $1.8 million of tax revenue in the city by reducing the multifamily and increase in the hotels, we’re able to grow that to just under $3 million projected with the plan that we proposed,” Behrens said. “ So looking to maximize the economic impact to the city, and we think this new plan does that.”